经济学人下载: The World This Week Business

Business this week 

一周商业要闻

Jul 13th 2013 |From the print edition

The European Commission unveiled its proposed “single resolution mechanism” that would give it the authority to wind down failing banks in the euro zone with the support of a new cross-border fund. Germany is opposed, arguing that such an expansion of the commission’s powers would require a treaty change. France, Italy and Spain are fairly happy with the idea. 

欧洲委员会公布此前提议的“单一解决机制”计划的细节，根据该计划，欧盟可以获得一支跨境资金，用以安抚行情低迷的欧元区银行。德国持有不同观点，认为实施这种扩大委员会权利的做法，有可能需要欧盟条约。法国，意大利跟西班牙则乐此不疲。

American regulators outlined plans to increase the amount of capital that eight systemically important banks must hold. The banks will be required to increase their leverage ratios to 5% of their total assets, which is above the 3% agreed to by international regulators in the Basel 3 accord. Although the banks would have until 2018 to comply, they might in practice need to meet these thresholds earlier.

为了增加八所具有系统重要性银行的应有资产数额，美国监管部门对此草拟出一份方案。要求银行在其总资产中将杠杆比率增加到5%，高出于巴塞尔协议Ⅲ中国际监管机构所商定的3%。尽管各银行只需在2018开始实施这项方案，实际上，他们也许该尽早地达到这项指标。

A committee set up by the British Treasury to choose a new administrator for LIBOR gave the job to NYSE Euronext, which operates the New York Stock Exchange. It is paying a token 1 pound (1.50 dollars) for the honour and expects to start managing the international benchmark interest rate early next year. The British Bankers’ Association has overseen LIBOR since the 1980s, but the scandal surrounding the manipulation of the rate by traders dented its reputation.

英国财政部设立一组委员会，来决定由谁管理伦敦同行业银行拆借率。最终将这项工作交给纽约泛欧交易所集团，这个集团经营着纽约证券交易所。明年年初，在象征性地支付一英镑（1.5美元），换取这项荣誉后，此集团将带着众人的期望开始管理国际准基利率。自1980年以来，英国银行家协会便一直关注伦敦银行间拆放款利率，但是一些包含交易者操纵利率内容的丑闻流出，使之名声受损从而失去选票。

The global asset-management industry grew to a record 62.4 trillion dollars last year, according to the Boston Consulting Group, passing the previous high set in 2007, before the financial crisis. Most of the gain is explained by roaring equity markets, which increased the value of assets under management.

据波士顿咨询集团报道，金融危机之前，全球资产管理行业总值在去年达到62.4万亿美元，超过之前2007年的高峰值。之所以能够达到这么高的总值，原因在于产权投资市场的快速增长，增加了受制资产的价值。

China’s Ministry of Public Security accused GlaxoSmithKline, a British drugs company, of bribing doctors in three cities to prescribe its medicines to patients and of receiving kickbacks through conference fees. China has been an important growth market for GSK over the past decade.

中国公安部指控英国药物公司葛兰索史克的不法营业手段，此公司贿赂三个城市的医生给患者开自家生产的药品，并且从会议费中扣取回扣。在过去十年中，中国已经变成葛兰索史克公司首要成长型市场。

Faring slightly worse

进展稍显不顺

The IMF shaved its forecast of growth for the world economy from a previous estimate in April. It lowered its projections for this year in America, the euro zone, China, Brazil, Russia and India, though Britain, Canada and Japan all had their GDP growth figures revised up. The IMF’s list of looming risks includes a sharper slowdown in emerging markets and the possible tapering of quantitative easing in America, which, it said, could lead to “sustained capital-flow reversals”. Meanwhile, the cooling of China’s economy was underlined by official figures showing that its exports unexpectedly fell by 3.1% in June compared with the same month last year. Imports were down by 0.7%.

较之前四月份显示的总值，国际货币基金组织预测世界经济增长将减弱。尽管英国，加拿大和日本的国内生产总值上调，IMF还是降低了对美国，欧元区，中国，巴西和印度的预测值，IMF列出的潜在危机包括新兴市场的剧烈减缓，以及美国量化宽松政策消退的可能，后者据说可以导致“持续的资本流动逆转”。与此同时，官方数据明确显示中国经济正在冷却。数据表明中国出口总值较去年同月，出人意料的下降了3.1%，进口值则下降了0.7%。

Royal Dutch Shell appointed Ben van Beurden as its new chief executive. Mr Van Beurden, who has spent a large part of his 30 years at the energy company working at its liquefied-natural-gas division, had not been regarded as a front-runner.

荷兰皇家壳牌公司任命范伯登为其新一任的首席执行官。范伯登曾为该公司液化天然气精炼部门任职，30年来一直默默无闻。

Spoiling the books plot 

打击书市阴谋

A judge in America ruled that Apple had conspired with five big publishers to push up the price of e-books and break Amazon’s grip on the market. The judge found that the “evidence is overwhelming that Apple knew of the unlawful aims of the conspiracy” hatched with the publishers, which have all reached separate settlements with the Department of Justice. Apple is to appeal against the decision.

美国联邦法官近日作出判决，认定苹果公司与5家图书出版商串通，提高电子书价格以打破当下亚马逊垄断图书市场的现状。法官查明，证据的确证实：苹果公司清楚自己与出版商共同策划的阴谋意图是非法的。出版商已分别与司法部达成协定，苹果公司则将提出上诉。

The chief executive of Barnes & Noble resigned, two weeks after its latest quarterly earnings report made for troubling reading. The book retailer’s Nook e-reader doubled its losses as it struggled to compete with the Kindle and iPad, a blow to the company’s hopes that digital publishing would offset falling sales of books.

在做出有关阅读便利方面的季度收益报告两周后，Barnes & Noble公司首席执行官提出辞职。这个书本零售商发行的NOOK电子书跟kindle和ipad拼力竞争，结果导致损失加倍。本以为靠数字出版能抵消书本销量下降带来的损失，结果确让公司深受打击。

Tribune became the latest media company to announce it is splitting in two, with a plan to separate its newspaper arm from its television and internet division. The publisher of the Los Angeles Times and other dailies gets around two-thirds of its sales from newspapers and websites, but only a fifth of its operating profit. It recently bought 19 local TV stations in a 2.7 billion dollars deal.

作为最新宣布将公司一分为二的媒体公司，论坛报计划将报纸从电视、网络部门中分裂出去。出版商销售洛杉矶时报以及其它日报的营业额里，报纸和网站大概占有三分之一，而营业收益只占五分之一。此公司最近以2.7亿美金收购19家地方台。

Global personal-computer shipments continued to slump, falling by about 11% in the second quarter, according to Gartner and IDC, two tech-market research firms. Both also reported that China’s Lenovo overtook Hewlett-Packard as the world’s biggest seller of PCs.

全球个人计算机发货量持续下跌，据技术市场调研公司高德纳和互联网数据中心报告，个人电脑的销量第二季度下降了11%，同时中国的联想笔记本销量超过惠普，成为世界最大笔记本销售商。

Delivering on a promise

履行承诺

The British government set out its plan to privatise the Royal Mail. Valued at up to 3 billion poumds (4.5 billion dollars), it will be the biggest privatisation in Britain since the mass sale of state industries more than two decades ago. Postal workers will be handed 10% of the shares, though unions remain opposed. The privatisation does not include post offices

英国政府开始实施私有化皇家邮政计划。皇家邮政价值高达3亿英镑（4.5亿美元），这将会是继20多年前大量国有工厂出售以来，规模最大的民营化。尽管公会仍然反对，私营后邮局职员有望分享10%的股份。私有化范围并不包括邮政局。